For the past six years, a subcommittee of the Health Guidelines Revision Committee has been working on a new Guidelines section on acoustic design to help reduce the noise in our health care facilities. A set of acoustic tables specific to health care has been developed, and new sections on controlling noise added to the text of the document. This session will enable you to-
• Explain the impact that acoustics has on patient care and safety, based on current research, in terms of patient satisfaction and the impact on the healing process.
• List five actions, based on best practices, that can be taken during the planning and design phases to reduce the noise level in health care facilities.
• Discuss, using a review of case studies presented, methods that can be applied to update existing areas in a health care facility to better meet the needs of patients and health care providers.
• List three innovative strategies, as demonstrated in case studies, for adapting the principles presented to other projects and scenarios.